COACH DANTONIO: Well, welcome back, everybody. I know you had a chance to visit with our coaches a little bit today and our players. I think I answered a lot of question at the Big Ten meetings.

I thought our guys came in ready to go. Yesterday, we had our first day of practice. Any time you have your first day of practice; it brings back a lot of memories for coaches and players. Some seniors going into their last go around. It's also exciting to see the first year players out there for the first time. They made quite an impression on us just in shorts. We had good retention from our older players, and guys helping coach the younger players. That's all very positive.

We've had some great strength gains physically. The tangible things we see physically from our players as Coach Manning talked last night, we probably have maybe 86 players bench over 300 pounds, we have 57 players bench between 350 and 470 pounds. When you hit that 350-mark bench press, you're in that capacity to be able to play with quickness and play with about anybody. Between 350-to-470, that's quite an accomplishment. In the squat, we have 50-plus guys squatting over 500 to 550 or beyond and quite a few in the 600 range. We also have good speed.

From top to bottom when you look at our football team, our fourth year here, I'm very excited about the opportunities that we have in front of us and very excited about our upcoming season. From top to bottom, I would say it's probably as talented a team as we've had. Certainly we've lost some good players in the past three years, but we have more depth and that should show and carry over.
With that I'll probably just open it up for questions.

Q. What are you most concerned about your football team as you start camp?

COACH DANTONIO: Certainly, I think when you look at it; we have to address the kicking situation. Who is going to be our kicker? Over the course of a football season, if you have your kicking unit - field-goal and extra-point unit - put up between 85 and 100 points, 110 points, you're going to have a good football team. Brett Swenson has been money for these last three years. That now falls to three guys. All three of those guys kicked yesterday. Dan Conroy, Kevin Muma and Mike Sadler did a nice job. It was their first day out, so we have to put pressure on them and see how they respond. That would be one concern.

We're rebuilding our offensive line on the right side, so obviously that would be a concern. But we do have some guys with some game experience back, so that's a positive there.

Beyond that, linebackers, we should be fine. Secondary, we should be fine. We've got guys in the right place. The quarterback situation is solid. Wide receiver depth is very, very good, along with tight ends. Our running back situation is very solid.

I stand by what I said before; we should have a good football team.

Q. Some of your players were talking today about winning the Big Ten championship and getting the school back to the Rose Bowl is something on their mind daily. Do you like that?

COACH DANTONIO: Absolutely. I've always said from day one in coming here, you expect to win championships. With that being said, it hasn't happened in a while. You set yourself apart (by winning a championship).

When you look at what has transpired here in the past three years, you have to win the close games, you have to finish. But those possibilities are real. When you look at the 2008 season, I don't know what we were picked that season, but we go into the last game with a chance to win the championship, that's what you have to shoot for every year: to play the last game for a championship.

That's a goal of ours, as it is a goal of 11 other teams right now in the Big Ten conference. It's a challenging goal, but we go into every game feeling like we can win, and I believe that.

Q. In using the new star position, 3 4, can you talk about what the staff talks about with making those adjustments? What goes into the changeover in some of those things?

COACH DANTONIO: Our star position really is a will linebacker position, a weak side linebacker position. He's an adjustor at times, so he can also carry over into nickel packages where he can be a defensive back. It can be a linebacker in a three linebacker 4 3 scheme or it can be a linebacker in a 3 4 scheme.

The bottom line, I've said this over and over, we have to get our best football players on the field. Whatever that allows us to do; we need to be able to be comprehensive, to be able to satisfy that goal.

Certainly, we have more experience in the 4 3. The 3 4 lends to certain things against certain types of spread teams. We have to experiment a little bit as far as the future goes. We have to see how that transitions when we play a game. It's one thing to do it in practice; it's another thing to do it in a game.

I do think there's a place for it. We've worked at it, so we should know where we're at here early in the season with it.

Q. You've talked about team chemistry a lot in the past week. How much of a difference do you think that can make having great team chemistry this year as opposed to last year, previous years?

COACH DANTONIO: Well, it's not necessarily that our past teams had poor team chemistry. What I'm excited about is the things that are coming out of the weight room, what Coach Manning has said, the things when I talk to our football team, to our players. I'm excited about basically the youth on our football team and the older guys, the experience, how they relate to each other a little bit.

It's not to detract from the other football teams. I thought we had great team chemistry in 2007, '08 and '09 as well. But there's a little bit of a different feel with this football team. Maybe it's because our primarily guys came in with this staff, and they have been here for a longer period of time. But everybody seems to be moving in the same direction.

Usually when some negative things may have happened to you, whether it's losing a close game or something else beyond that, as we all know, I think that has a chance to make you a little bit more cohesive as a football team in the end. I think that's what you see happening. Hopefully, that will translate into further success.

Q. Coach, talking about turning a negative into a positive. How have you seen your team collectively, individually, do that from last year's incident?

COACH DANTONIO: Well, we've had an outstanding semester grade-point average wise. I would say that's the first indication of that. I'm not talking about summer classes; I'm talking about the spring semester. I thought our winter workouts and our spring practice and our bottom line (summer) conditioning program . . . all three of those facets of our football program were done with a lot of enthusiasm, with an attention to detail and with a certain amount of focus.

So when you look at those aspects, all you can do is read off of sort of what's going on. Hopefully, we haven't had anybody in problems, to my knowledge. But it happens all around us. It's about choices.

But when I talk to our players individually and when I talk to our players collectively, they're all saying and doing the right things right now. I'd say that's the biggest indication to me.

Again, you're going to be measured right out there on that field in a lot of ways, success or failure. I realize that, too.

Q. Can you identify the top position battles for starting jobs going into camp and just evaluate how that is at this point?

COACH DANTONIO: Well, I would say one of the top battles is at wide receiver. We've got four guys there that have played for us, so they're sort of expecting a lot of playing time. And they're going to get it. If you're going to ask me to put the first two guys out there, who are they going to be, it depends on how they practice this fall.

When you look at our running back situation, we have two guys. We'll use both those guys, (Edwin) Baker and (Larry) Caper. We have two young guys playing very well based on their indications from last spring, in Le'Veon Bell and Nick Hill. We'll have to see who will be the third (tailback), see how that falls into place.

Certainly, kicker is a position of competition. The right side of the offensive line is a position of competition. There will be a battle for playing time at tight end. Charlie Gantt is going to be outstanding, but we have again a position of depth there with guys who played with Brian Linthicum, Garrett Celek, Dion Sims, so four guys.

When it's that kind of a situation, you have to have good fall camps going into it. That's pretty much the case at a lot of the different positions. We have the same thing at defensive end. We have probably four guys playing pretty well.

We'll see how it all shakes out, but it's going to have a lot to do with who stays healthy and how they play in these next two, three weeks.

Q. Last December, Keith Nichol accepted his new role as a receiver. Is he now defining himself in that role?

COACH DANTONIO: I think he's defining himself in that role, but he's also defining himself as a play maker, a guy we can use in so many different areas. We're not going to box ourselves in and say, okay, listen, you're a receiver, so this is all you're playing, you're going to be out here. He has to be able to play a variety of receiver positions. He also has to be able to move in there and play some quarterback. There needs to be some things we do with him. He has to be a guy that can make plays for us. We have a number of guys like that on our team.

But as I said at the Big Ten meetings, throughout the spring, he's too good of an athlete not to have on the football field. His role is going to expand; he's too tough of a guy not to have on special teams. He's 223 pounds, one of our best athletes, has quickness, explosiveness. He has all the intangibles that go along with that. So he's going to be an outstanding Spartan for us.

Q. You mentioned this senior class is the one you came in with. Can you talk about that and maybe some of the expectations that go with that, knowing this is your team pretty much?

COACH DANTONIO: It's the fourth year seniors are our team right now. So you have guys like Greg Jones, even Kirk Cousins you can put in that capacity because he's in his fourth year with us. We probably have about six very good players. Charlie Gantt is a very good player. Marcus Hyde, Josh Rouse, Colin Neely, guys that have been here on the past staff, they're very good players and good people. The majority of our guys that are the seniors, so you have guys that played their first years, like Greg Jones and C.L. Rucker, I can't remember all of them, but those guys that got on the field that first year, they're the actual seniors.

It's exciting to watch them finish their last year. But it goes by quick. A lot of them are walking around today saying, I can't believe this is our last fall camp, our last media day, the last time they have a chance to stand up and talk to our football team, those types of things. It will be exciting for them, too.

I don't know if I'm answering the question or not.

Q. How about expectations from you?

COACH DANTONIO: My expectations? I expect to win every football game, and I'm not ashamed to sit up here and say that. That's my expectation. We have the talent to be able to play with anybody on our schedule. What we have to do is minimize mistakes, create opportunities for us in the other areas, special teams and on defense, and take care of the football. If we do those things and can play to our abilities, finish the game, we will have an outstanding football team.

But, you know, there are good football teams in this conference, too. We have to be able to play consistently as much as anything.

Q. A year ago, you had two quarterbacks. I don't know if you'd do that any differently again or not. Do you sense in Kirk (Cousins) that because he's your quarterback as opposed to a year ago that he plays with any more confidence? What has he learned from adversity from last year?

COACH DANTONIO: Well, first of all, in last year's situation, you have to win the quarterback battle. When it's very close in the spring, you have two guys with almost identical stats and everything in the spring game, you see guys make plays throughout the scrimmages; you have to allow that battle to continue. I feel that's the correct thing to do. As the year progresses, you try and make decisions that are best for your football team.

In his first year as a starter, 12 games, I thought he did an outstanding job. He was elected captain by his peers. It's tough to lead as a captain when you haven't been the starting quarterback. That's tough. You get thrown into an environment where you're trying to make sure you're right. It's difficult to lead others at times, but he did a nice job doing that.

I think he's more comfortable with his position now. I think he has a great control of our offense in terms of what things he can do in there, the things he can create. He has suggestions; he has more ownership in that area. I think he's more at ease in his environment and I think when that happens, you can be more successful.

With that being said, you have the other situation, just asked about Keith (Nichol), you need to have an opportunity for him to get on the field as well.

Q. Mark, you're going into your fourth year now, so are you more confident going into this season than you were in the previous three seasons? If so, why?

COACH DANTONIO: I've been confident going into every season. I don't think I've ever sat here and said we're going to lose the first three games out of the box. I don't think I've ever said that. I've always maintained we have an opportunity to win.

Good to see you here, Drew (Sharp). Glad to see this day is relevant to you.

I think as far as the confidence goes, you see your players, you see them more often, you find out more about them. It's human nature. You're going to be around them more, find out how they react in tough situations. Brian Hoyer in 2007 as a first-year starter was different than Brian Hoyer in '08 as a player. Experience gives you that. Being on the field for the second time in a position of leadership gives you more experience. So you're better at all positions, not just the quarterback position.

So expectations, I think, are higher for us. They're higher because of the way we've reacted to things. They're higher because I know we need to win back some respect. I understand that. We'll make our way through that.

Again, I don't know if I'm answering the questions, but I'm getting better.

Q. In the defensive backfield, are you concerned you really have four guys with experience or do you feel that will lead to better communication because those guys will probably get more snaps together this season?

COACH DANTONIO: No, these guys have been in the program for four years basically. It's their fourth year. We have some outstanding freshmen coming in. When you watch them yesterday, when I watched them, watched the film on them, they're excellent athletes. We have some guys. Jairus Jones is going to be an outstanding player for us at safety. He weighs 203 pounds and moves well. Red-shirt freshmen Dana Dixon and Pat White are two guys that have been in the program that are ready to go, they're active, they want to play, and they have confidence.

You know, it's about making plays on the ball, it's about tackling in the back end and eliminating big plays. That's what we have to do. We have to do a good job at that, a better job. I think we have talent (in the secondary), but we've got to stay healthy.

Q. Trenton Robinson says he watches film of the mistakes made last year because he wants to feel awful; he doesn't want to forget that feeling.

COACH DANTONIO: That's good.

Q. A lot of guys mentioned today taking ownership. For you, do you see maybe more than ever before there's a sense of ownership?

COACH DANTONIO: Yeah, I do. The word of the day today in our meeting was 'focus.' That's a small word, but it means a lot of things. I always have an assistant coach come up and talk a little bit about that aspect.

'Focus' has to do with mastering your fundamentals, mastering what you do regardless of what it is you do for a living. That's what begins to happen.

Trenton was on the field for the first time last year, so he had to concentrate. I have a puzzle that sits on my table. There's eight pieces in the puzzle. For a third grader. I always say, when you come here, you're trying to take those eight pieces and put them in there like this.

The first time out there, starting on the football field in front of a national TV audience or whatever the case, a lot of things are on the table, and you're just trying to make sure you don't mess it up. When you go beyond that, you start learning how to adapt, how to make changes, how to communicate better, how to play the position at a higher level.

I said last spring every time I walked by Trenton, `You're playing safety to the fifth power in my mind.' He had an excellent spring practice. It's one day of shorts, but he looked the same in terms of his footwork, his effort, attention to detail, concentration. Those things should pay off on game day.

That's what playing one year as a sophomore gives you. It gives you that experience. There is nothing you can do that takes the place of experience.

When you look at our football team, we have 16 guys that are full time starters back. But when I count them up, some guys that have played significant amount of snaps for us, significant football, traveled, played in games extensively, we're looking at 30 plus guys. When you're the coach that gives you a great deal of confidence.

Q. You're a defense guy. Last year had to drive you a little crazy from that standpoint. What does the defense have to prove this year?

COACH DANTONIO: I think what we have to do is be more consistent. We have to create more takeaways. To me, trademarks of a great defensive football team are affecting the quarterback, creating takeaways, and eliminating big plays. Those are the three biggest things we have to do on a consistent basis.

When you look at us in terms of affecting the quarterback, 30 sacks (last season), second in the Big Ten, we have to be more consistent on those run pass downs. I said in Chicago that takeaways have to come in bunches. You have to make the play on the ball in the deep part of the field, get the ball tipped to you. Sometimes, the ball is going to bounce this way or that way. Takeaways are huge in a football game.

Turnovers, what a big difference they make in a football game. You can't give them the easy (score) one. We've got to play well in the red zone. Those are the four things I would look at. We have to get back to doing those things. We did those things better, more effectively in 2008 in terms of red zone defense than last year. Those are some of the things you deal with, and there's a little bit of a learning curve. We lost some players, and we had to respond.

Q. Did you take that personal last year?

COACH DANTONIO: I take everything personal. If we can't run the ball, I take it personal. I take it all personal. I'm sure all our coaches take everything personal. I'm not a defensive coach, contrary to what people believe, okay? I want our football team to succeed. So I go in the defense room, they say I'm rooting for the offense. In the offense room, they say I'm rooting for the defense. But special teams obviously weigh in a big part of this, as well. As a defensive coach, yeah, sure, I'm going to try to do what I can do. But I think we all take everything that happened personal.

Q. With some of the positions still in question - kicker, offensive line - how important is it those are decided quickly or is it something that you can play a game or two and still be working on it?

COACH DANTONIO: I think you can play a couple games, especially on the offensive line, working people in there. Kicker. They've got to work themselves out. You can't make the wrong decision. You can't bag a couple of guys and say, they can't play. You go with these guys, you're stuck. You have to allow things to take its course.

I think that's the beauty of this game. A lot of players play it. There are a lot of guys out there playing in that football game throughout the entire game. So you give people opportunities in scrimmages, but there's nothing like the real games. You give people opportunities in practice. You want to make sure every one of our players has an opportunity to succeed, play up and get involved. I think competition just makes our football team better.

So they'll be decided when it's locked down. I can't tell you anything other than that. We select the guy who is kicking best for us. He goes 4 for-4 in the first game, then he's going to kick the second game.

Q. You talked about at the start your team being stronger in sheer numbers with the bench press and all that. How much of that is just four years of having that program in place and how much of it is willingness of the group to get in the weight room and do that?

COACH DANTONIO: I think a couple of things lend to that. First of all, Ken Manning does a great job in our weight room. He's been here since 1995, and he's one of the masters in terms of strength and conditioning in this country. Our guys have bought into that program. They work extremely hard. That's number two. The third thing is that you got to recruit this, too. It doesn't just happen. You have to recruit guys with size and explosiveness. We've done a nice job recruiting. We have two Top 25 classes in here. After one day in shorts, this freshman class looks to be outstanding. You can see the guys can move, they're athletic, good skill level. That's very exciting for us.

All those things are factors. But it's got to start with the hard work that comes from the player, and then there's got to be a program in place. That comes from Coach Manning. Then you have to have that tangible natural resource to build on, and that's recruiting the guys here. You got to stay the course. You can't leave. You can't be interrupted. You got to keep making gains.

Q. You talk about earning respect back. How do you quantify that? When this season ends, how do you know that Michigan State has respect back?

COACH DANTONIO: I think you quantify that in three areas: socially, academically and athletically. Obviously, you have to win on the field. We've got to play hard and I think we played hard. You've got to come ready to play every game, and you've got to come focused. I think we have done that. But you've got to finish. You have to win. That's just the way the world works. That's number one.

I'm not necessarily going in order.

Number two, we've got to stay right as people. We have to make good choices as people and represent this university in a class manner and we have to be gentlemen. The sad thing is 95 guys can be doing it right; one guy not do it right and it affects all of us. But we have to understand that because we live in a fishbowl. We have to make sure that we stay focused and out of trouble and make good moral choices, the right choices. That's not always easy to do, but we need to try our very, very best.

The third thing is we have to continue to try to work toward graduating our players. If you look at where we're at in terms of graduating our players, we had 18 out of 21 guys who were seniors in 2008 graduate. The other three are working toward it. In 2009, I think all of them have graduated but two. They're currently working towards it. (Brett) Swenson hasn't, but he's in the NFL football and has over a 3.0 grade-point average. I think you have to measure yourself in those three areas.

You just can't quantify it as we won some football games and it's all right. I don't think that's what we're here for. One of the goals we have as people is when we walk out of here, that our players are self-sufficient men; they can take care of themselves and raise a family. I want to stand by that.

Q. Going back to the position battles a little bit. (Jared) McGaha and (J'Michael) Deane are two guys who competed at guard (last year) and now for time at tackle. Is that pretty even right now? With the right side, is this (Chris) McDonald's job to lose at guard?

COACH DANTONIO: Chris had an outstanding spring. He has to continue to perform well. He's in his third year of football, intelligent athlete, 300 pounds. He's ready to play at this level, and I expect great things from him this year.

At the right tackle, you have Jared McGaha, J'Michael Deane and David Barrent possibly in there a little bit. There are different people working in there. Antonio Jeremiah is in that mix somewhere. We'll see how that all shakes out. But I can't really say because we've been through one day of shorts. Those guys certainly have the experience. They should know what they're doing. They've come in, passed their run test, got to stay healthy. The one thing that's sort of nagged J'Mike is he has to stay healthy through two a days. That's probably the biggest thing for him.

Q. Tom Izzo talks about his favorite teams are player coached teams. Can you do that in football? Off of last year, are you banking on more players taking over this team?

COACH DANTONIO: Absolutely. I think that's a great statement. If you have player coached teams, you're getting that level of empowerment on the field or on the court. If you got that, the coach stands on the sideline. If I run out there, you think I'm going to make the tackle? They've got to make tackles, they've got to make plays on the field, be in the right position, make the right throws, call the right plays based on the check system, they've got to make the catch, pick each other up when we're down. When adversity starts to turn, we've got to be able to turn it back, snatch things back from the other football teams.

Those are intangible things and things that come with confidence. I think our level of confidence is very good at the leadership level. I believe that. I see the things that our players have done in the off season. I see how they respond. I see how they interact with each other.

You know, there's crispness to what we're doing in terms of whether it's a ball coming off a quarterback's hand or a ball coming off a punter's foot. There's exactness to what we're doing. Those are good messages, I think. I would totally agree with that. They have to be coached on the field by the players. They have to take that role of leadership.

Q. Do you have any plans to try some position changes, moving some guys around a little bit?

COACH DANTONIO: No, not really. C.D. Rucker will make the transition from wide receiver to corner. So he's working out there at corner. We did that yesterday. That's something that he wanted to try to do. He's been in that fifth or sixth wide receiver spot. He's a sprinter and has toughness. So we'll see how he transitions to that. That's the only guy I can really see right now.

Drew Stevens, we moved him to the fullback position (last spring), but he's coming off of knee injury. He should be ready by the end of the month. That would be the only other transitional player in that situation.

Q. You talked about depth on the offensive side of the ball. How much of a luxury is it for you as a coach to have that many solid players at virtually every position on offense?

COACH DANTONIO: It's a great luxury because if a guy gets hurt or goes down, obviously you can put somebody else in that can play at a high level. It also keeps things competitive, and that's probably the biggest thing. If you're competitively seeing a guy behind you make plays, it sends a message.

I think the one thing we really haven't talked about is our freshman class. I see Tony Lippett and Keith Mumphrey running routes. Those are players with great speed that catch the ball very, very well. Our freshmen running backs look very, very good. Those are two positions where we can play a young player if we decide to go in that direction due to injuries or whatever.

The two defensive ends, Marcus Rush and Taylor Calero, are very good players; very active. You watch Mike Sadler punt or kick the ball, and it pops off his foot. He has solidified our punting game for the next four years, beyond this year. He'll provide competition here at kicker too because the ball pops off his foot. Joe Boisture is still learning the quarterback position. Offensive linemen Travis Jackson, Skyler Schofner, Mike Dennis all look very athletic. But it's time spent on the offensive line sometimes that matters most.

I don't think I'm leaving anybody out, but our freshmen class is a good class.

All right guys, thank you very much. Great to see you guys here. Go Green!